Browser Game SUPERHOT Destroys the Boundaries of Time

Share

Browser Game SUPERHOT Destroys the Boundaries of Time

In free-to-play shooter SUPERHOT, time only moves when you do.

Image courtesy Piotr Iwanicki

The red man is suspended in midair, his arms outstretched. Clearly, he was pushed. I tap the W key to walk forward, and suddenly the man is moving, falling backwards into a pile of boxes. As he drops, his body dissolves into a red mist, then he's gone.

A message in an enormous font (Roboto) appears on my screen: "TIME ONLY MOVES WHEN YOU MOVE."

Shortly after this I'm given a gun, and discover with glee that I can walk slowly through storms of red bullets, standing still to freeze time when I need a moment to think. I can line up carefully placed shots at the strange, red-colored humanoid enemies that populate SUPERHOT's five short levels.

The game, available for free in browsers, is only a demo. A fully featured product is coming, SUPERHOT creative director Piotr Iwanicki tells WIRED – eventually.

Since Iwanicki, from a city in Poland called Łódź (pronounced "woodge"), put out the demo in mid-September, SUPERHOT has been slowly building an army of fans who are hungry for more than the small taste they've been given. When Iwanicki put the game on Steam's Greenlight service, it got enough support to earn a slot on Steam in only five days – faster than any other game in Greenlight's short history.

There's obvious promise shown in the free-to-play demo. One level has you running unarmed down a hallway while a small firing squad at the other end showers you with bullets. When you see them shoot, you can stop, figure out the trajectory of the bullets, and dive out of the way. It feels way too cool.

Later, in a courtyard shootout, you'll discover how to pop around corners and set up frozen-in-time bullets aimed at multiple enemies. Then you'll duck behind a column, the very act of ducking sending the bullets on their way to their targets.

Even if you take a full minute to decide a course of action and line up your shots, the events that unfold once you move will only occupy a moment in the flow of actual time.

The end of the demo has a bizarre, government conspiracy feel to it, with a disembodied face forcing players to jump to their death out a window. Iwanicki, who used his own face for the scene, says he intentionally made the ending zany, because he's trying to drive interest for the eventual full version of the game.

"We wanted to leave you feeling that you want more," he says.

Speaking for myself, his plan is working. (If only I could speed up time.)